The ASO welcomes this important investment in providing evidence-based treatment options for people living with obesity. The disease of obesity affects millions of people in the UK, and it is not possible to treat them in a hospital setting. Like diabetes, this is a prevalent disease that can only be treated in the community, with only more complex cases needing a referral to secondary care.
That provision outside of scarce tier 3 weight management services in the UK will help 10s' of thousands of people in the UK access NICE approved pharmacotherapy to improve their lives, prevent disease and for some will be lifesaving. This treatment has to been shown to be cost-effective for the healthcare system and possibly the wider society.
Investment is need for the education of healthcare professionals to treat obesity, expansion of primary and secondary care specialist obesity management services and greater access to nutritional, psychological, physical activity and surgical therapies for obesity. The reason for this is that a proportion of patients will not respond to pharmacological treatments and they will need to be treated using an alternative approach.
Healthcare systems have a duty to prevent and treat diseases. Therefore whilst this is a positive step for the treatment of obesity, additional investment is needed for the implementation of preventative measures that will reduce the incidence of the disease in the future.